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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30026430">Citrus and Sulphur</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings'>Beleriandings</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Torchwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Capybaras, Chill Vibes, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Telepathy, accidental time and space travel, soft, technically this qualifies as a hot springs episode, the team has a pleasant spa day</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:27:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30026430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a slow day in the Hub; anything could happen. Including, apparently, getting transported halfway across the universe and into the far future. Still, it's not all bad out there, especially when they have each other. Oh, and a hot spring with some friendly, telepathic alien capybaras. That helps too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Harkness &amp; Team Torchwood, background Jack/Ianto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Citrus and Sulphur</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/myre/gifts">myre</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Today, Jack would think later, had been entirely unexpected.</p><p>The object had fallen through the Rift in the morning, a brown shiny thing that looked like some sort of nut or seed-pod, like a rounded-edged, pentagonal acorn. After they’d made sure that it wasn’t toxic, or radioactive, or explosive, or otherwise dangerous, Owen had taken it to do some tests on. Finding nothing and growing rapidly bored, he’d passed it off to Tosh, who hadn’t been able to find much more; all she’d been able to ascertain was that it was some kind of biotechnological transporter, but little else.</p><p>But the morning had been a slow one other than that. And so by noon they were all clustered around Tosh’s desk watching idly as she tinkered.</p><p>Jack saw them there as he came out of his office, thinking to see if Ianto would be willing to let himself be distracted for a bit while things were slow. Just as he came out of the office though, Tosh put down her small screwdriver and needlenose pliers in annoyance.</p><p>“You know, you lot hanging over me isn’t helping me figure this thing out,” she said.</p><p>“Well, there’s fuck all else to do,” said Owen, rocking back in his chair precariously. “After Ianto told us off.”</p><p>“Oh, Ianto told you off?” said Jack, waggling his eyebrows. “I’m kinda jealous...”</p><p>Owen just rolled his eyes.</p><p>“They were throwing Haribos to Myfanwy to catch in her beak,” sighed Ianto, before Owen could complain. “Those make her sick if she has too many. Also, it ruffles all the papers in the Hub, and I’m not tidying those up <em>a</em><em>gain</em> today.”</p><p>“We said we were sorry,” said Gwen, clearly trying to look genuinely contrite.</p><p>“We’re not really though,” said Owen.</p><p>Ianto did not dignify this with a response but merely gave a long-suffering sigh, as they all peered over Tosh’s shoulders again. Jack put his hand on her arm. “Want me to take another look at that thing?”</p><p>“No, it’s fine, it’s just...” Tosh hissed through her teeth, now trying to pry it open with the tip of her screwdriver in the small gap, “…a little... <em>stuck</em>...”</p><p>“Here, maybe I can – <em>whoa!</em>”</p><p>Jack tried, reflexively, to throw his arms out, to push the rest of the team back as best he could as the object came open, splitting perfectly into five segments. But he was too slow; a soft violet light expanded out of it like a cloud, encompassing all five of them immediately in its glow.</p><p>Then the Hub and indeed the whole world around them was gone, wrenched away as the light enveloped them. For a dizzying moment they were falling, or flying, or <em>something</em>, the world making no sense, until–</p><p>They suddenly landed, collapsing in a heap on something soft and springy.</p><p>Jack got up first, scrambling to his feet in case he had to defend the others. But they seemed to be alone, in a small, misty clearing under a purple sky. The ground beneath them was soft moss, bright green and velvety, and all around them were ancient trees.</p><p>“Jack, what just happened?” said Gwen’s voice. “Oops, sorry Ianto. Landed on top of you there.”</p><p>“It’s okay. Just a few bruises. But yes, Jack, I second that question.”</p><p>Jack frowned. “I don’t know,” he said, turning back to regard them carefully, offering his hands down to help them up. “Are you all okay?”</p><p>“Fine.”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Yeah, think so. ...Where are we?”</p><p>Jack put his hands on his hips thoughtfully and looked around. They were in a misty forest grove of some sort, but the green of it seemed almost preternaturally bright and lush. The sky was a pale, hazy lilac, with two faint moons just visible hanging close to one another over the tree tops. Not Earth, then, but the air was breathable – indeed, it smelled clean and slightly fragrant with something a bit citrusy. But there was also another smell, a kind of sulphurous scent that put him in mind of volcanic fumes.</p><p>“Jack? Any ideas?” said Gwen, coming up to his side apprehensively.</p><p>“Not yet. Working on that.”</p><p>“Only, we’ve clearly… you know. Gone somewhere. I don’t want Rhys to worry...”</p><p>“Gwen, we’ll get you back to Rhys before you know it,” he said, willing for it to be true. “Tosh, do you still have that transporter?”</p><p>“Yes, but it’s still broken, I think,” said Tosh, frowning, holding it out so they could all see. It had split open into five segments, with a smoothed chunk of some kind of purple stone in the centre like the core of a nut. “I don’t have my tools with me, so I can’t even try and fix it. I’m sorry.”</p><p>Jack looked around at them. Ianto was chewing his lip nervously, hands on this hips as he squinted around into the trees. He looked like he wanted to stick his hands in his jacket pockets, except he’d left his jacket in the Hub. Jack sympathised; he wished he’d been wearing his coat for their impromptu trip. He always felt better with it on.</p><p>Frowning, he shook the thought from his mind. Owen had started to pace, and Gwen was peering down at the object in Tosh’s hands, prodding it with a finger.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “I’ll figure out how to–”</p><p>“Jack!” said Ianto, interrupting him. “Something’s out there. Beyond the trees.”</p><p>Immediately, Jack was on guard, as were the others, hands going for guns that were – mostly – not there. Jack’s was, as always, holstered at his waist, but he didn’t draw just yet, merely came up to stand beside Ianto and follow his gaze into the mist. He laid his other hand comfortingly on the small of Ianto’s back. “What’d you see?”</p><p>“I… don’t know,” said Ianto, frowning. “It’s gone now, but...” he crinkled up his brow, frowning a bit deeper as he rubbed his temple. “It was more like… a feeling. A sort of fuzziness in my brain. Warm. You know?”</p><p>“Oh!” exclaimed Gwen. “Now you say that, I feel it too!”</p><p>“Me too!” said Tosh. “It feels… nice?”</p><p>“Definitely. Kind of comforting?”</p><p>“What are you all – <em>oh,</em>” said Owen, blinking in surprise. “Huh.”</p><p>Jack frowned, concentrating. Not that it took much to realise what they meant. As soon as he was aware of what he was looking for, he recognised it for what it was; an almost-familiar gentle warmth, extending into his mind. He smiled, relaxing. “It’s the overspill from a telepathic field,” he said, craning around through the forest. He started to walk, confident that the others were following behind. “Some species use them to communicate, by means of raw thought instead of language. We’re getting the background noise of it right now. Must be a town or a settlement not far off.”</p><p>“But that’s fascinating!” said Tosh, running up beside him and matching his pace.</p><p>“Do you think they’re going to be friendly?” said Owen.</p><p>Jack smiled, as the trees began to thin out around them again; they were nearing the edge of the forest, and beyond the trees and the mist, he could see movement of some kind. “Well, we’re getting their thoughts. They seem pretty good-natured so far, right?”</p><p>“Maybe not to outsiders.”</p><p>“Maybe not. But there’s a chance someone’ll be able to help fix that thing, so we can get home. Worth a try, don’t you think?”</p><p>“Jack’s right,” said Gwen, before Owen could answer. “I’m sure they won’t be too – <em>oh</em>.”</p><p>They all stopped short at the forest’s edge, staring at the sight before them.</p><p>There was a little settlement of rounded houses of fired brick, roofs densely thatched with thick waxy leaves to keep the rain off. The central space was clear, and seemed to be some sort of marketplace, though it was clearly winding down for the day.</p><p>Nevertheless, it was teeming with fuzzy creatures. Creatures that looked for all the world like–</p><p>“Are those… capybaras?” said Owen squinting through the parting mist.</p><p>Jack grinned in delight, staring around at the creatures; they did indeed resemble capybaras, though a good deal larger, ranging from young ones about the size of a great dane – albeit much chunkier – to adults the size of a car. “Yep,” said Jack, grinning as he walked out from beneath the forest eves; several capybara babies raised their heads to look over curiously at him.</p><p>“Wait, am I missing something?” said Owen, peering around in confusion. “Capybaras are not an alien species. They’re just not. ...Are they, Jack?”</p><p>“Not in the way you mean,” said Jack. “They originated on Earth, like humans did. These are their distant future descendants. I always heard stories…” he smiled as he thought back to his childhood, the fairytales about a peaceful race of large, mildly-telepathic rodents who lived in peace and harmony on a hidden little world of their own while the human race fought with itself and expanded out into the stars. “That explains the telepathic field. They never developed language in the same way as humans did, but just communicated by projecting out their emotions all around them, along with a kind of background radiation of calm. They never had any major wars because their culture is very peaceful, and based on mutual empathy and de-escalation.” He knelt down, as two of the baby capybaras scampered over, nuzzling his sides; immediately, he found himself enveloped in their curious thoughts, a wordless <em>what are you?</em> coming over him.</p><p>As the team approached behind him, Jack tried to get himself back in the mindset for telepathic communication; he was by no means a natural but there was an etiquette he’d learned and practiced for interacting with empathetic-type telepaths, a knack to maintaining the thoughts you wanted to project at the forefront of your mind. He did it now, trying to make them understand: <em>we’re friends. We’d like to ask for some help and a place to stay if we can</em>.</p><p>At that moment, the capybara mother came trundling over, bumping Jack’s side with her snout and then walking in a circle around the rest of the team, before – apparently satisfied – drawing back, nudging her babies into step in front of her and giving him a snuffling, barking sound. As she did an image bloomed into his mind’s eye; a little thatched booth, a capybara in an orange hat. A soft suggestion to turn his head to the right.</p><p>He smiled gratefully, touching her head between the ears because it felt like the right gesture; she snuffled in a friendly sort of way and sent a further wave of telepathic greeting to him. <em>I wish you and your family much warmth</em>.</p><p>And then she was off, the babies scampering behind her making playful squeaks that seemed too high for their chunky forms. Jack winked at the littlest one, then turned back to the others, who were looking at him with varying degrees of confusion.</p><p>“Right, plan number one,” said Jack, looking over in the direction the capybara had pointed him; sure enough, there was a little booth on the far side of the marketplace clearing. “Gotta talk to someone about a way home.”</p><hr/><p>“Good news, kids!” said Jack, bounding back over to them a little while later, to see that they’d sat down on the grass and were talking in soft voices. “The transporter’s fixable. Well, apparently it wasn’t actually broken in the first place, it just needs its coordinates reset to take us back to where we came from, but they need to be converted from the local input notation. The lovely lady over there says she can do it for us.”</p><p>Ianto peered behind Jack at the lovely lady in question, who was a capybara a little smaller than the one they’d first encountered, slightly taller than an adult human and perched on a three-legged stool under a small canopy of woven leaves. She was wearing a soft, squashed-in orange felt hat on top of her head, sipping from a clay mug of steaming citrus infusion and and humming a jaunty tune to herself as she fiddled happily with the transporter which Jack had brought over to her.</p><p>“That’s sophisticated bio-tech, though!” said Tosh, nervously. “Are you sure she’s going to be able to do it?”</p><p>Jack waved a hand, dismissing her concern. “She says she’s the best tech witch in the village. ...I suspect she’s the <em>only</em> tech witch in the village, but you know. Gotta take what you can get.” He chuckled at their rather doubtful expressions. “It’s okay, she’ll manage it. It’s simple stuff apparently, but she says it’s gonna take a few hours to do the coordinate conversion.” He saw Gwen’s frown. “Don’t worry, it’ll only be that long from our perspective. We can just pop back to the exact moment we left, so Rhys won’t even have time to worry about you being gone.”</p><p>“Oh, okay,” said Gwen, smiling in relief. “Thanks, Jack.”</p><p>He nodded.<br/><br/>“What’re we going to do in the meantime?” said Owen, looking around.</p><p>A slow smile spread across Jack’s face, as he brought his arms up around them, steering them all off towards the place where he could see a cloud of steam rising, and hear the distant splash of water. “Something else she told me about,” he said. “I think we all deserve a bit of a break, don’t you?”</p><p>“What–?” began Owen.</p><p>But Jack was already walking away, pulling down his braces and unbuttoning his shirt as he went.</p><p>“Um, Jack?” said Gwen, with slight alarm. “What’re you doing?”</p><p>“Going for a swim,” said Jack, just as they crested a small incline beyond the village. There the grass ended and the ground fell away in a smoothed-down, rocky slope before them. At the bottom of it they could now see a number of pits in the rock, filled with pale, milky-hot water, steam rising up from the volcanic hot spring. In the water were a multitude of capybaras of all ages, slowly drifting or sitting in the steam, grooming one another’s fur or napping on the rocks. Amongst them in the water bobbed yellowish-orange citrus fruits, in great number.</p><p>Jack turned to the others, already stripping off his clothes until he was down to his underwear, laying them on the rocks beside him as they went. “Coming?”</p><p>“Um.”</p><p>But Jack didn’t wait for an answer; he was already running down the last of the slope and splashing into the water, knowing that they’d follow soon enough.</p><hr/><p>The capybaras didn’t seem at all perturbed by his sudden arrival; Jack got the impression that it would take a lot to rattle them. As it was, some of them raised their heads curiously to look, but most of them just carried on bathing.</p><p>Jack drifted gently on his back, smiling softly as one of the larger capybaras bumped against his side, pushing a few of the fruits that seemed to ubiquitously drift in the water towards him. They looked like some kind of very large citrus fruit, yellow-orange with thick waxy skins, their smell sharp but fragrant.</p><p>The nearest capybara nudged him again with its snout and Jack drifted through the steam, enjoying the warmth; it was a little hotter than the ideal bathwater temperature, and smelled just a touch sulphurous, though not in a way that was unpleasant.</p><p>Jack saw the capybara beside him shift, feeling the soft telepathic warmth of its presence wrap him up like a warm hug. In combination with the hot, buoyant salt water and the steam and the sensation of drifting, it felt almost dream-like.</p><p>His thoughts were interrupted as he saw shapes, moving on the edge of the pool; he raised his head a bit from the water and grinned, spotting Gwen, Ianto, Tosh and Owen lingering on the edge of the pool, looking at one another doubtfully.</p><p>He raised his hand and waved. “Come in! The water’s fine!”</p><p>Beside him, the nearest capybara raised its large, blunt-nosed head, paddling over to the side and purr-rumbling softly, another gentle telepathic flood of welcoming warmth rolling over the area. It paused in front of Gwen, who smiled in surprise, kneeling down cautiously on the bank to reach out and touch its furry cheek. Jack watched, utterly charmed as it nuzzled her hand, rumbling louder under her touch, as one of the babies swam up beside it, curiously peering up at Ianto.</p><p>“Um, hello,” said Ianto, a little awkwardly as the baby paddled in the shallows, soon to be joined by two of its eager siblings; Tosh was already starting to coo over them, and Jack chuckled at their reactions.</p><p>Owen, however, was frowning, standing back as he faced off with what must surely be an adolescent, around the size of a pony, that was splashing water out of the pool. Owen wrinkled his nose. “Jack, are you sure this is safe? This water is – ah!”</p><p>“Owen!” shrieked Tosh, as the capybara in front of Owen lunged upwards and caught the back of his knee with its snout, knocking him towards the water’s edge. Owen was clearly caught off guard by it because he had no time to right himself, falling in fully clothed with a splash that drenched Tosh, Ianto and Gwen.</p><p>At the same time Jack felt telepathic laughter like mischievous giggles sweep through his mind, bright and infectious. A moment later, Owen came up spluttering and protesting and swearing. Jack, relieved that Owen was all right, began to laugh too, wading over. “See?” he said to Owen. “It’s pretty nice in here.”</p><p>“Only if you’re expecting it,” grumbled Owen, but he was already grudgingly peeling off his wet shirt, putting it on the bank. “Oi, where are you going with that?!” he demanded, as a capybara in what looked like a little apron trotted forward and laid his shirt out to dry on one of the warm rocks nearby.</p><p>“They’re drying it for you,” said Jack. “It’ll be nice and warm by the time you’re done swimming.” he grinned. “C’mon. The rest of you too… no excuse now.”</p><p>Tosh, Gwen, and Ianto all exchanged looks, before shrugging and starting to strip down to their underwear to get in the water.</p><hr/><p>And that was how the five of them ended up sitting in a steaming hot spring filled with large, floating citrus fruits, surrounded by gently drifting capybaras grooming one another and enjoying the heat. The water was cloudy and gently blue-tinted with salts and minerals, blood-warm and pleasant.</p><p>On top of that the telepathic field was even denser here with all the capybaras around, suffusing the whole place with a profound sense of peace and safety. Jack felt calmer than he had in… well, he didn’t even know how long. Years perhaps, or maybe decades. Usually these days he was only ever this relaxed when he was curled up with Ianto in the warmth of their bed, but even then there was always the outside world, always the chance of a Rift alert to drag them out into a damp Cardiff night.</p><p>Here, out of their time, it felt easier for Jack to fully relax, to let the hot water wash his cares away as the violet sky blazed a luminous pink at the horizon with the sunset, before starting to fade to a darker purple of encroaching night, the moons growing brighter. As he tipped his head back, faint pink and green aurora began to dance and flicker across the stars.</p><p>Along with the dreamlike beauty of the place, the bright taste of the citrus fruits was heavy on his tongue. The capybaras kept trying to encourage them to eat; it seemed to one of the few social expectations here, to eat the fruit until you were full and happy. Not that that was any hardship; the fruits were delicious, like an orange but a little larger and with a slightly more sour tang. In Earth terms, Jack decided, they were somewhat like a cross between yuzu and grapefruit, but larger, about the size of cantaloupes.</p><p>Right now, he was splitting one with Ianto and Gwen, peeling off the thick, fragrant peel and pith in chunks and passing them each juicy segments. Owen, meanwhile, was lying down in a natural hollow of rock, clearly only pretending to nap – with several adolescent capybaras clustered around him like warm, living pillows – and Tosh was having a minor splash fight with several of the babies, their barks and her giggles echoing off the rocks across the pool as their telepathic bursts of delight suffused the area.</p><p>As they sat there though, Jack became aware of another telepathic presence, stronger and more overwhelming than all the other capybaras around; he turned at the same time Gwen, Ianto, and Tosh did, Owen cracking open an eye, to see the biggest capybara they’d encountered yet trundling down the slope; the size of a small minibus, and from the way that the others all fell silent, clearly someone of some importance.</p><p>The matriarch or grandmother of this settlement, it quickly became clear to him from the cloud of swarming thoughts and images coming at him from all directions. Her muzzle was rimed with a little frost-grey age, but her eyes were bright and intelligent, inky black reflecting the colourful light. She was here to see the newcomers, Jack knew. Gwen elbowed him in the ribs and Jack took the hint and stood up, smiling and trying to project, <em>I am the head of my family, too. We thank you for your hospitality</em>.</p><p>At that she snuffled and rumbled thoughtfully, coming up to nuzzle and smell him. Jack stood very still, bearing this inspection patiently.</p><p><em>You’re old</em>, came the surprised thought. <em>Old and hurting, under</em><em>neath all that</em>.</p><p>Jack nodded regretfully. <em>That’s true</em>.</p><p><em>You love them so much</em>, she thought at him. <em>You’re full of fear and responsibility, and all of it wrapped up in love. </em> <em>You’re made of it</em>.</p><p>He nodded again, knowing she understood.</p><p><em>You protect your people</em> , she thought, raising her head respectfully. <em>I protect my people too</em>. <em>It’s a heavy weight for a little spindly thing like you, old as you are</em>.</p><p>Jack bowed to her slowly. <em>I won’t deny that. But I do my best anyway</em>.</p><p>He felt something like a laugh, playful and almost mocking as she nudged him upright again with her front paw, patting the top of his head with her snout. <em>No need for that. </em> <em>We love visitors. </em> <em>Now you can stop protecting, and stop hurting, for a while. You and your family are safe with us</em>.</p><p><em>Thank you</em>, Jack projected, leaning forward and kissing her on the nose on impulse.</p><p>She raised a paw again, with a rumbling purr so loud it made the surrounding water ripple, and knocked him down into the pool.</p><p>Jack went down with a laughing splash and a swirl of steam, sending citrus fruits bobbing every which way, and the certainty that she was right; while they were here, they’d be utterly and completely safe.</p><hr/><p>A little while later, Jack woke lying at the edge of the water between two medium-sized capybaras, as one of the babies playfully nudged a citrus fruit to make it bounce off his chest; he laughed and shook his head, giving the baby capybara a kiss on the snout and sending it on its way.</p><p>He hadn’t even realised he’d fallen asleep, but then the warmth of the water and the general air of peace did have a somewhat soporific effect. Well, that was okay; they were safe here, after all.</p><p>Still, he did wonder where the others were, seeing them no longer with him. He craned around, standing up for a better view and frowning slightly. But before he could even start to properly worry, he spotted them.</p><p>Jack smiled affectionately as he took in the sight before him; the matriarch was lying napping on the side of the pool, on her back amidst the mist. Piled up around her were some of the smaller adult and young capybaras, curled up asleep too. But on top of her stomach were four very familiar figures: Tosh, Owen, Ianto, and Gwen were all fast asleep on top of the capybara grandmother, piled up amongst her sleeping children and enfolded in a comforting, peaceful cloud of telepathic comfort. From what Jack knew about such species and the way they kept their groups bonded, he thought it likely that they’d all be sharing the same comfortable, pleasant dream. Either way, he’d never seen his team quite look quite so peaceful.</p><p>Just as he was thinking this, he felt another telepathic nudge against his own mind, and felt another warm wave of sleep pass over him. He knew it for what it was of course; an invitation to come and join the communal sleep pile, to rest and be safe.</p><p>He only paused a moment longer before happily accepting. He was just wondering how best to – respectfully – climb up, when a fluffy, sleepy paw reached out, the capybara grandmother barely cracking open her eyes as she lifted him and plopped him down on her stomach along with the rest of the team. Following this, she snuffled and wiggled a bit – pausing to rearrange herself and the younger ones – before promptly dropping back to sleep again.</p><p>Jack chuckled to himself, hoping she could understand his gratitude from the way her telepathic thoughts seemed to suffuse him; he hoped some of his own peace was spilling back. Still, there was not much better he could do than to snuggle down in amongst his team, nestling in between Tosh and Ianto, who shuffled closed in his sleep and looped a hand over Jack’s waist without waking up. On his other side, Tosh rolled over to make herself comfortable again. On Ianto’s other side, Gwen nestled closer too, not quite dislodging Owen who was resting his legs on hers at right angles as he lay sprawled on his back like a starfish.</p><p>Jack couldn’t help but smile; in the midst of the cosy telepathic cloud, he could almost feel the edges of their shared dream already as sleep slipped over him. The fluffy belly of the grandmother capybara was soft and warm underneath them, the tangle of his friends’ – no, his <em>family’s</em> – limbs around him warm and relaxed.</p><p>As Jack slept, he dreamed; nothing distinct, more flashes of emotion than anything else, amplified by the calming telepathic field. A profound sense of safety and closeness, the warm blobs of light of his family’s dreams and those of the capybaras like dancing lanterns floating up into the sky on a warm Boeshane summer evening.</p><p>He woke to Ianto’s hand on his shoulder, the dream melting away but leaving behind a lingering sort of peace. “Jack… Jack. Wake up.”</p><p>Jack blinked in the light of the aurora and the moons, set against the dark purple night sky and an unfamiliar scatter-pattern of stars. But amidst them he saw Ianto’s face looking down at him, offering him a hand up. He was still lying on the capybara grandmother’s warm stomach, but the others had all climbed down and dressed again, apart from Ianto who had stayed to wake him.</p><p>“Oh,” said Jack, smiling; he felt calm and rested, more at peace than he had in a long time. “Is it time?”</p><p>“Yep,” said Ianto regretfully. “The transporter’s fixed. Time to go home.”</p><p>Jack let Ianto take his hand, but before he could help him down, the capybara grandmother was stirring in her sleep, sighing and bringing her paw up to scoop them both up and slide them safely down to land on their feet.</p><p>She turned over onto her side once they were down, with a sleepy, rumbling purr that seemed to vibrate the very ground they were standing on, and shoved Jack with her snout, hard enough that it might have knocked him off his feet if Ianto hadn’t been there to steady him. Still, the touch was accompanied by a friendly wave of telepathic affection, and a gentle headbump for Ianto in turn.</p><p>Jack laughed, giving a deep bow and trying his best to project his own love and gratitude for everything into the cloud of cosy telepathic thought as he went to get their clothes.</p><p>A little while later, all five of them were dressed and together again, in clothes that were a little stiff with salt but dry and toasty-warm from the hot volcanic rocks.</p><p>In the time Jack had been gone, Tosh seemed to have made fast friends with the capybara tech witch, who was showing her the transporter and how to use it. Jack had to admire the speed with which she’d got used to empathic telepathy as a mode of communication for complex ideas, but then again, maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised; Tosh had always been brilliant after all, he thought proudly.</p><p>After they’d all finished thanking the tech witch and all the other capybaras, Jack smiled, beckoning the team close; Gwen and Owen, who had been munching on another yellow citrus fruit as they waited, hastily finished their last segments and joined them.</p><p>“Right,” said Jack, beaming around at them; they all looked flushed with the steam, but more relaxed and happier than he’d seen them in a long time. “Who’s ready to go home?”</p><hr/><p>When they materialised back in the Hub in a bright nimbus of purple light, everything seemed very cold and dim in comparison. But the strangest part was the sudden departure of the telepathic field; it was often like that with such things, you got used to them while they were there and when they were taken away, it was rather like having a bucket of cold water dumped over your brain. Jack had been half expecting it; the others less so, he realised as he saw them blinking and stumbling in surprise.</p><p>He caught Tosh’s shoulder, helping her back down into her desk chair, as Owen plopped down on the sofa in surprise and Ianto caught himself on Gwen’s flung-out arm, the two of them just about managing to steady one another.</p><p>Jack chuckled, taking the chance to put the now closed transporter into a plastic evidence bag, sealing it, and setting it carefully back on Tosh’s desk. Once he’d done that, he beckoned them all close for an impulsive hug; they came quicker than usual.</p><p>Empathetic communication did that, sometimes: it left a little bit behind. Or maybe that was just them, Jack thought. His family, for as long as he had them.</p><p>He pulled them all close, squeezing Ianto around the waist, clasping Gwen’s hand tight, pressing kisses to the tops of Tosh’s and Owen’s heads in turn as he held onto them. And if once they might have complained about being held for so long, today no one did, all of them relaxing into the contact. They were all still very warm from the steam of an alien hot spring, their hair and clothes carrying a lingering smell of citrus and sulphur.</p><p>And, Jack realised, he didn’t mind a bit.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For M, who was posting pictures of capybaras in hot springs with floating yuzu that sent me into a sudden frenzy to write something very soft like this. I hope it wasn't too weird but I just couldn't resist the imagery... also the team deserves to have a spa day like this.<br/>Drop me a comment if you like, and/or come say hi on tumblr @ultraviolet-eucatastrophe!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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